Notes
This book gives general information. It isn't medical or psychological advice, and it's no substitute for a doctor or therapist who knows your situation.
I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes the method in chapter 8, the three decisions in chapter 9, the advice in chapter 11 and the closing chapter. The NHS pages were read in September 2026. They're written for England, and services differ elsewhere.
Before you start. The signs of depression and of ADHD in adults are from the NHS pages "Symptoms, depression in adults" and "ADHD in adults".
Chapter 2. Sirois and Pychyl, "Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: consequences for future self", Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7, 2013, pages 115 to 127. I read the authors' accepted manuscript in full. It's a review and an argument, not an experiment. Tice, Bratslavsky and Baumeister, "Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: if you feel bad, do it!", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80, 2001, pages 53 to 67. The third of its three experiments concerned procrastination. My description comes from the published summary and from Sirois and Pychyl's account of it. Tice and Baumeister, "Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: the costs and benefits of dawdling", Psychological Science 8, 1997, pages 454 to 458. Two studies of students, with stress and illness reported by the students themselves. The point that delay adds guilt to the original feeling is in Sirois and Pychyl. The test for telling a plan from the habit is mine.
Chapter 3. Steel, "The nature of procrastination: a meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure", Psychological Bulletin 133, 2007, pages 65 to 94. The remark that the thrill-seeking account is unfounded is from Sirois and Pychyl, who cite Simpson and Pychyl 2009 and Steel 2010. I haven't read those two papers. Chu and Choi, "Rethinking procrastination: positive effects of 'active' procrastination behavior on attitudes and performance", Journal of Social Psychology 145, 2005, pages 245 to 264. The list of four things the last night supplies is my own analysis, and so is the test built from Chu and Choi's description.
Chapter 4. Masicampo and Baumeister, "Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101, 2011, pages 667 to 683. These were laboratory studies with goals that the researchers brought to mind. Applying them to a proposal that waits for a fortnight is my step. Johansson and seven colleagues, "Associations between procrastination and subsequent health outcomes among university students in Sweden", JAMA Network Open 6, 2023, e2249346. Of the 3,525 students, 73 per cent answered at nine months. Everything was reported by the students themselves, and the study is observational. The rest of the chapter is my argument.
Chapter 5. Berglas and Jones, "Drug choice as a self-handicapping strategy in response to noncontingent success", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36, 1978, pages 405 to 417. In that original study the effect appeared in the men and not in the women. Ferrari and Tice, "Procrastination as a self-handicap for men and women: a task-avoidance strategy in a laboratory setting", Journal of Research in Personality 34, 2000, pages 73 to 83. I could get neither this paper nor its published summary, and my description follows the way other writers report it. I've given no figures for that reason. The predictors are from Steel 2007. The idea that work which matters is a measurement, and that the swerve avoids being measured, is my reading of this literature.
Chapter 6. Sio and Ormerod, "Does incubation enhance problem solving? A meta-analytic review", Psychological Bulletin 135, 2009, pages 94 to 120. The experiments used puzzles and creative thinking tasks that took minutes, not proposals that take weeks. The authors warn that the conditions for using incubation in practice need care. Carrying their finding over to a fortnight's work is my inference. The claims about mood and clarity following a start are mine.
Chapter 7. Buehler, Griffin and Ross, "Exploring the 'planning fallacy': why people underestimate their task completion times", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67, 1994, pages 366 to 381. Five studies, mostly with students. The account of why dread overestimates how bad the work will feel is mine, and I know of no study of it in this setting.
Chapter 9. Parkinson, "Parkinson's law", The Economist, November 1955. Readers who know this subject may expect to find Ariely and Wertenbroch, "Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: self-control by precommitment", Psychological Science 13, 2002. It was the standard source on deadlines people set for themselves. The journal retracted it in September 2026, and both PubMed and Crossref now mark it as retracted. I've left it out, so the advice on promised dates rests on reasoning alone.
Chapter 10. Sirois, "Procrastination and stress: exploring the role of self-compassion", Self and Identity 13, 2014, pages 128 to 145. I read the accepted manuscript. The four samples were 145, 339 and 190 undergraduates and 94 adults, all measured at a single point in time. Wohl, Pychyl and Bennett, "I forgive myself, now I can study: how self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination", Personality and Individual Differences 48, 2010, pages 803 to 808. I couldn't get the paper. My account follows Christian Jarrett's report of it for the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, 4 May 2010. The participants were first-year students, and forgiveness was measured, not taught, so the study can't show that learning to forgive yourself would have the same effect. The account of where the habit was learned is a guess and is worded as one.
Chapter 12. Masicampo and Baumeister 2011, as above. Plans in "when, then" form are from Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The six parts haven't been tested together. The description of how an urge to swerve behaves is my expectation and not a finding.
Chapter 13. The symptoms, the age of onset, the warning about waiting times and the self-referral route are from the NHS pages "Symptoms, depression in adults", "ADHD in adults" and "Talking therapies". The advice on urgent help is from the NHS page "Where to get urgent help for mental health". Rozental, Forsell, Svensson, Andersson and Carlbring, "Internet-based cognitive-behavior therapy for procrastination: a randomized controlled trial", Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 83, 2015, pages 808 to 824. Clinically significant change was reached by 31 to 40 per cent with guidance and 24 to 36 per cent without, depending on the measure. The comparison was with a waiting list, which is an easy comparison to beat. The advice against counting streaks is mine.